Risk Management Process in Projects and Programs

Risk management, as a process, does not vary between a project and a program. Instead of thinking about cross-task risks at the project level, we must think about cross-project risks at the program level. Risk registers, risk logs, and scorecards are utilized in both cases.

Tools for risk management

As for tools, each one provides risk management forms and templates at the project level. Tracking risks at the program level may require some workarounds in popular tools. Creating a program project within the program to track these concerns is one such workaround. Transferring risks down to the projects can also work, though this will include some duplication. Depending on the level of cross-project communication, each project team knowing about every risk that impacts them is a way to reduce instances of risks being missed.

Assessment

When planning the project composition of a program, one aspect to look at is how project structures can create risk. Cross-project dependencies require more coordination than task dependencies within a project.

The figure below shows program milestones with dependencies between them. Let's look at how this division of work can create efficiencies as well as risks: